[Xmca-l] Re: Help with Russian translation

[David Kellogg]

Andy:

I think this somewhat over-literal translation might help:

"The real (or the actual, factual--DK) basis of the human personality
consists of the totality of its social-in-nature relations to the world;
however, these are relations which are realized, and realized in their
activeness, or more precisely, in the totality of their multi-formed
activities.

We have in view the subjective activeness which is the source of the
"units" for the psychological analysis of the personality: not actions, not
operations, and not psycho-physiological functions or building-blocks of
these functions; the latter characterize activity and not directly
personality."

I'm cheating a little here, both by being over-literal and also by
distinguishing between subjective activeness and the activities which
realize it. But I think that is Vygotsky's intention. First of all, to
identify the basis of human personality in relations with the world taken
as a whole, and then to distinguish between the personality and the
specific actions that apparently make it up but which cannot exhaust its
potential.

David Kellogg



On Fri, Aug 7, 2015 at 7:01 AM, HENRY SHONERD <hshonerd@gmail.com> wrote:

> Andy,
> Sorry, I am absolutely unqualified to translate this! But I am wondering
> if the “life projects” Vygotsky had in mind were akin to what Vera
> John-Steiner has called in her book Creative Collaboration “network of
> enterprises” and what you call “life projects” in your intro the recent
> book on collaborative projects that you edited and to which Vera has
> contributed. I doubt this helps with the translation, but I am hoping that
> I am on the right path to understanding the passage.
> Henry
>
> > On Aug 6, 2015, at 6:28 AM, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:
> >
> > Could some of our wonderful Russophiles criticise my translation of the
> following excerpt:
> >
> >       *Р*еальным базисом личности человека является
> >       совокупность его общественных по своей природе
> >       отношений к миру, но отношений, которые реализуются,
> >       а они реализуются его деятельностью, точнее,
> >       совокупностью его многообразных деятельностей.
> >
> >       Имеются в виду именно деятельности субъекта, которые
> >       и являются исходными "единицами" психологического
> >       анализа личности, а не действия, не операции, не
> >       психофизиологические функции или блоки этих функций;
> >       последние характеризуют деятельность, а не
> >       непосредственно личность.
> >
> > which I have translated as:
> >
> >       The real basis of a person’s personality is the
> >       totality of their life-projects, which are social by
> >       nature, but life-projects which are realised, and
> >       they are realised by their activity, or more
> >       precisely, by the totality of their various
> >       activities.Here we have in mind in particular the
> >       activities of the subject that are initial “units”
> >       of the psychological analysis of personality ‒ not
> >       actions, not operations, not psychophysiological
> >       functions or the blocks of these functions, which
> >       characterise activity, but not directly personality.
> >
> > But there are parts of this which are really unclear to me, and perhaps
> a better translation would clear it up. The standard English translation
> does not help.
> >
> > Andy
> > --
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > *Andy Blunden*
> > http://home.pacific.net.au/~andy/
>
>
>